Renowned essayist Maria Popova calls death a prerequisite for life. We hold things closer when they’re scarce. A rollercoaster ride that never ends gets boring eventually.
It’s why we seek value too. Knowing we’re going to die pushes us to give our life significance.
It’s why we seek value too. Knowing we’re going to die pushes us to give our life significance.
So death is more like a blank canvas than a void. It doesn’t ban meaning from life—it’s the groundwork to build meaning on top of.
But again, there’s irony. We’ll never be significant on Earth’s time scale.
But again, there’s irony. We’ll never be significant on Earth’s time scale.
Think of it like this:
The Sun will absorb our planet when it’s 12 billion years old. The average person blinks 500 million times in their life. So our time on Earth is like asking a 78-year-old man to list four times he blinked in his 30s. Yikes.
The Sun will absorb our planet when it’s 12 billion years old. The average person blinks 500 million times in their life. So our time on Earth is like asking a 78-year-old man to list four times he blinked in his 30s. Yikes.
But that’s a thought I hug on to. I can disappear into the vastness of existence when life gets overwhelming. There were billions of people before me, and there will be billions after. There’s no pressure in the middle of a crowd.
“Anyway, before very long, you'll both be dead - dead and soon forgotten.”—Marcus Aurelius
Being human can feel like a shit deal. As if dying isn’t bad enough, we have to live knowing we’ll die.
Being human can feel like a shit deal. As if dying isn’t bad enough, we have to live knowing we’ll die.
But it brings value to everything around us, pushes us to build meaning, and gives us a relieving reminder if we mess up: it’s okay; soon, we’ll all be gone.
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